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Jul 29, 2011
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special envoy to afghanistan. his new book is called the wars of afghanistan. please welcome to the problem peter tomsen. have a seat. >> thank you. >> jon: my first question to you is simply this. really? (laughter) really? >> it's pretty big. >> jon: really? >> yeah (laughter) don't drop it on your toe. >> jon: let me ask you this, volume 2, what period of wars does this cover and how much of the amazon is now gone? (laughter) what period of wars are we dealing with her. >> actually it's six, two in the 19th century, one in the early 20th century, and the rest with the soviet invasion and afterwards. >> jon: starting in '79. >> right. >> jon: what is so alluringly invadable about-- (laughter) >> jon: afghanistan because everyone seems to want to do it they don't have oil. they don't appear to have mineral wealth, although i think they've recently discovered that. they appear to just have a tightly knit group of tribes who don't care for being invaded. >> exactly. and in our case we called it an intervention. some call it an invasion. the big, the most importa
special envoy to afghanistan. his new book is called the wars of afghanistan. please welcome to the problem peter tomsen. have a seat. >> thank you. >> jon: my first question to you is simply this. really? (laughter) really? >> it's pretty big. >> jon: really? >> yeah (laughter) don't drop it on your toe. >> jon: let me ask you this, volume 2, what period of wars does this cover and how much of the amazon is now gone? (laughter) what period of wars are we...
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Jul 15, 2011
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you have been to afghanistan. this was your sixth tour. and you had two tours in iraq. >> actually, it was my fifth tour. i've been back since. >> jon: you've been back to afghanistan for another tour since you were wounded? >> yes. >> jon: you're luke skywalker. that's who you are. that's what this is. [cheering and applause] that's who you are. that's unbelievable. all right. so now you have been wounded in both legs. you've got... these are younger fellas. they're looking to you for leadership. are you still functioning in a capacity in that moment? >> yes. >> jon: how is that possible? is it training? is it just there's a certain something in you that wouldn't give up? >> it's training and it's the fact that we're all brothers out there, and you wouldn't... just like i wouldn't give up on one of my children, i wouldn't give up on my brothers. and that's this way i looked at it out there. and the way a bird takes care of it young one, feeds them until they can grow and hopes that they become good leaders. >> jon: right. >> it's just men
you have been to afghanistan. this was your sixth tour. and you had two tours in iraq. >> actually, it was my fifth tour. i've been back since. >> jon: you've been back to afghanistan for another tour since you were wounded? >> yes. >> jon: you're luke skywalker. that's who you are. that's what this is. [cheering and applause] that's who you are. that's unbelievable. all right. so now you have been wounded in both legs. you've got... these are younger fellas. they're...
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president obama's surge in afghanistan worked pretty well. everyone agreed we were going to draw down. i'm worried he's drawing down too fast and abruptly. i wish he followed general petraeus' recommendation but everybody agrees we'll be out of the combat portion of it by 2014. >> jon: as a country, do you feel like this is proof positive that our whole mentality about fighting the war on terror has been wrong for 10 years? would you say now-- would you-- would you stand and face the camera and say-- and-- and-- button your coat-- and say, oh, my god. i had this so completely wrong, guys. >> no. >> jon: bout butt how can-- >> the whole country has been engaged in this. and i think on the whole doing the right thing. look, a war-- a world in which americans have to fight and have to be, in effect, the kind of world policemen is a difficult world for us. god knows we all hate to see young american men and women go over there and fight and get wounded and die. on the other hand, a world in which we don't do that is a more dangerous world. >> jon
president obama's surge in afghanistan worked pretty well. everyone agreed we were going to draw down. i'm worried he's drawing down too fast and abruptly. i wish he followed general petraeus' recommendation but everybody agrees we'll be out of the combat portion of it by 2014. >> jon: as a country, do you feel like this is proof positive that our whole mentality about fighting the war on terror has been wrong for 10 years? would you say now-- would you-- would you stand and face the...
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Jul 12, 2011
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. >> the paper hacked voice-mail of the families of britain's soldiers killed in iraq and afghanistan. >> jon: wow!, why would they even -- >> i don't know, jon, perhaps the same reason they also did this. >> staffers with the now-defunct nuptially tried to hack into the phone of 9/11 victims. >> jon: suddenly we're on a game show. pretty [bleep] depressing. >> it's very depressing. >> jon: why would they need the details of victims of 9/11. >> well, neighbor might sell one or two extra papers, jon. but the real cherry on this [bleep] sunday was the case of poor milly dowler, a missing 13-year-old girl that had britain riveted. >> during the period of time when she was missing the news of the world were using a private investigater to listen her voice-mail. >> jon: to help in the search for the -- >> maybe, maybe, jon, but just to be sure, let's check. >> the voice-mail box of milly's phone filled up. the news of the world were hungry for more information for more stories so they intervened and deleted the messages. >> jon: i think i just threw up in my mouth a little bit. >> but let'
. >> the paper hacked voice-mail of the families of britain's soldiers killed in iraq and afghanistan. >> jon: wow!, why would they even -- >> i don't know, jon, perhaps the same reason they also did this. >> staffers with the now-defunct nuptially tried to hack into the phone of 9/11 victims. >> jon: suddenly we're on a game show. pretty [bleep] depressing. >> it's very depressing. >> jon: why would they need the details of victims of 9/11. >>...
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Jul 20, 2011
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(laughter) but we may be leaving afghanistan within the next 50 or 60 years. (laughter) and if that occurs, what is pakistan's interest in the taliban in that, you know, what is the situation that, as you see it with our maybe pulling back a little bit? >> that's a serious issue to be considered, especially to... it will have implications on pakistan. if you quit in 2014, whatever has been declared, obviously the best strategy for the taliban or the enemy, al qaeda and taliban, is to lie low, let time pass, and then rise again. so declaring... giving a timeline, i have always been saying that it ought to be effected, what effects do we want to create? you can't have it time related because then you'll be in the hands of the enemy, i would say. and if you leave in 2014 without stabilizing afghanistan, what will happen then? we need to visualize. >> well, the problem is... the difficulty i think for america is afghanistan hasn't been stable since, i guess, hannibal. (laughter) so the idea that we could stay there... (laughter). they don't appear to want to be st
(laughter) but we may be leaving afghanistan within the next 50 or 60 years. (laughter) and if that occurs, what is pakistan's interest in the taliban in that, you know, what is the situation that, as you see it with our maybe pulling back a little bit? >> that's a serious issue to be considered, especially to... it will have implications on pakistan. if you quit in 2014, whatever has been declared, obviously the best strategy for the taliban or the enemy, al qaeda and taliban, is to lie...
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Jul 27, 2011
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> jon: which came on the heels of an almost absurdly reckless decade with unfunded wars in iraq and afghanistan and unfunded trillion-dollar medical prescription bill and tax cuts for the well they are the largest single policy contributor to our deficit. in fact, i myself voted for all of these... back to my original point. (cheers and applause) obama! now, look, i'm not an economist, but i do have one area of expertise that i believe i can refute speaker boehner on. >> here's what we got for that massive spending binge. a new health care bill that most americans never asked for. a stimulus bill that's more effective in producing material for late-night comedians than it was in producing jobs. (audience reacts). >> jon: no, that is so true! that is so true! 125 that stimulus bill gave us so much material. here's another stimulus humdinger i came up with this morning while i was listening to bloomberg radio. "hey, how about this manufacturing sector with underutilized capacity, huh? am i right? i don't know if we're stimulating demand through increased credit availability or just cutting losses
> jon: which came on the heels of an almost absurdly reckless decade with unfunded wars in iraq and afghanistan and unfunded trillion-dollar medical prescription bill and tax cuts for the well they are the largest single policy contributor to our deficit. in fact, i myself voted for all of these... back to my original point. (cheers and applause) obama! now, look, i'm not an economist, but i do have one area of expertise that i believe i can refute speaker boehner on. >> here's what we...